March Madness: The Final Four Advances

In what is sure to go in the record books as a cruel act of divine intervention, Alain Badiou overcame a healthy lead by Slavoj Zizek in the Overrated 8 and beat him by a mere 16 votes. We have all, as a result, been robbed of a Chomsky vs. Zizek finals.

In the Final Four, we’re left with the champion of overrated dead people – Adam Smith – up against Alain Badiou, the champion of overrated french theory. On the other side of the bracket, Noam Chomsky hits Jurgen Habermas.

Don’t let Habermas lose this one. There are entire departments of holistic psychology and music therapy that will go out of business if Habermas is crowned – and that’s reason enough to vote for this man. Chomsky’s not even a philosopher, poor son-of-a-btich.

Bartakomus

Chomsky is not a philosopher and doesn’t claim to be one. Which makes his inclusion in this ridiculous.

And Derrida should have won hands down

I suspect these results come from the fact that everyone has heard of Chomsky and Smith so are voting for them out of familiarity

Connor Syrewicz

Chomsky is listed in The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers and the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. His work has been extremely important for contemporary philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. He has engaged in debates with tons of analytic philosophers and even some continental ones (Team Foucault woo!). Yes, he is a political activist and linguist first. But he is a philosopher.

And, trust me, anyone who visits this website is familiar with all (or at least most) of the names on that list. I know I was. (Except for Betty Friedan. I had heard of the feminine mystique but didn’t know who wrote it. Boo second wave feminism. Boo.)

Bartakomus

You’re right, he is included in lists of philosophers and has engaged with it in the past. But that’s not why he’s famous. His fame has absolutely nothing to do with his philosophical work but is entirely based on his work in linguistics and politics. The same applies to Adam Smith.

I just find it a little bit problematic that two very famous people were classed as “overrated” by philosophers when their main works arent philosophical whatsoever. There’s definitely an element of punishment for fame involved.

Either way, I’m still bitter about Derrida not winning

Connor Syrewicz

Yeah, I feel yah (on the Chomsky & Smith stuff). It makes a lot of sense though when you consider that this website is frequented mostly by Marxist/ Continental theory fans/ students. Adam Smith, one majorly legitimizing force for the cultural logic of capitalism and Chomsky, one of the most quoted leftist intellectuals ever who happens also to hate most contemporary continental philosophy.

Derrida is alright. A bit overrated. But alright so I don’t mind that much :]

mr. peepers

Chomsky is not over-rated. He revolutionized (and practically created) contemporary linguistics by the age of 25. In addition, he has written hundreds of books that are more than just unverifiable speculation. I respect Habermas… however…. Jurgen is way more over-rated than Chomsky.

TskTsk

The website moderator should intervene and shut this shit down. Smith and Chomsky, two non-philosophers? It’s embarrassing. Let’s just admit that democracy doesn’t work and avoid the reign of bullshit.

Omid Roshandel

Were facing living zizek and talking about others, ridiculous !
even Mig Mig , Pink Panther and my poor blind grand mother are talking about him.I feel like a runner who passes the edge and keep running in the sky but suddenly looks down under his feet and sees there’s no zizek in Finals!!n fail.
just can’t believe this

Tomek

Adam Smith has landed this far just as a symbol of capitalism. That’s completely unfair regarding the foundations of classical economy such as the labor theory of value which served for each and every one that tackled the issue (come on, where did Marx come from in his analyses?).